The EDI CON 2014 technical sessions and workshops will feature numerous papers on the current state of Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistor technology, GaN-based RF power amplifiers and their design and use in various applications. GaN has emerged as the technology of choice for many new microwave and millimeter-wave electronics including radar, satellite, communications, and electronic warfare applications. This III-V semiconductor material is being quickly adopted for systems that will benefit from its high power density of about 5 to 12 W/mm, broadband characteristics (due to its high output impedance) and its ability to dissipate heat from a small package. Furthermore, GaN has high breakdown voltages levels and features typical transistor fTs up to 200 GHz, allowing these HEMT (high electron mobility transistors) to amplify signals well into the upper-gigahertz ranges. The presentations will be complemented by the participation of GaN device manufacturers such as RFHIC, NXP, DYNAX, Freescale and others in the event’s vendor exhibition.
Breaking the Kilo-Watt GaN boundary - MACOM Workshop
Date: Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Time: 4:15 PM - 5:00 PM
The presenter will address the design of MACOM's latest high power GaN parts from 500W to 1.5KW, discussing operational boundaries, application and potential usage scenarios. The instructor will discuss in more detail the device attributes and what matters in a complete amplifier design including load effects and bias needs.
GaN Transistor and Hybrid Amplifier Technology and Road Map - RFHIC Workshop
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Time: 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM
Part I - Demonstration on asymmetric Doherty amp design with minimum efficiency of 53% using our state-of-the-art GaN transistor. This Doherty amplifier outputs 58W (40W on system level) with FDD LTE 20 MHz input signal, PAR 7.5dB with supply voltage of 48V, Psat 380W. An example application of 165W GaN transistor for main path, and 220W on peaking path to cover 2555~2655MHz frequency range with IBW 60MHz will be presented.
Part II - Presentation of a high efficiency GaN Hybrid Amplifier for small cell application, fabricated using a 0.4um GaN HEMT process. This GaN Hybrid Amplifier achieves a saturated output power of 70W and high efficiency of 45% (typ) at an average power of 10W(40dBm), a gain of 14 dB, ACPR of -52dBc for LTE signal with a 7.5 dB peak to average power ratio over the frequency range from 2610MHz to 2690MHz. Integrated with symmetrical Doherty configurations, this Hybrid Amplifier is packaged in a very small form-factor 28 x 19 x 4.8 (mm) on AIN (aluminum nitride) board which provides excellent thermal dissipation.
High Voltage GaN HEMT Doherty Power Amplifier Utilizing Hybrid Waveform Engineered Design for High Efficiency
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Time: 8:30 AM - 9:55 AM
Zhancang Wang of Nokia Solutions and Networks will present a high voltage symmetrical Doherty power amplifier (DPA) based on GaN HEMT transistors. The carrier and peak amplifiers were hybrid harmonically manipulated as class-E and class-F-1 modes respectively, taking dedicated advantages of them for hig efficiency. The 4dB compression output power was 47dBm with 14dB power gain with 70% drain efficiency and 6dB back-off efficiency ≥ 57%, measured at 935MHz band. Experimented with single carrier LTE 10MHz signal clipped into 6.6dB, a drain efficiency of 53% was achieved with the adjacent channel power ratio level of -44.7 dBc at an average output power of 12.9W.
A High Voltage GaN HEMT Inverted Doherty Power Amplifier Utilizing Harmonic Manipulation
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Time: 8:30 AM - 9:55 AM
Zhancang Wang of Nokia Solutions and Networks will present an inverted Doherty power amplifier (IDPA) based on two high voltage 30W GaN HEMT transistors in this paper. Both the carrier and peak amplifiers were harmonic manipulated with micro stripes as inverse class-F mode, taking full advantage of GaN high peaking voltage properties, for the sake of its superior linearity and efficiency performance over a wide range of load impedances. The proposed IDPA was configured to operate on 48V for 900MHz band and experimented using single carrier LTE 10MHz signal clipped into 6.6dB. Overall high efficiency performance was achieved at a given 3GPP linearity level. A power-added efficiency of 46.1% was observed at an adjacent channel power ratio level of -45.3 dBc at an average output power 16.6W with 48V supply.
Intrinsic Cree GaN HEMT Models allow more accurate waveform engineered PA designs – CREE/AWR Workshop
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Time: 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
This is a two part 90 minute workshop presented by Ray Pengelly of Cree and John Dunn of AWR Corp. In the first half, following a brief review of the advantages of GaN HEMT transistors compared to other technologies and an overview of Cree’s well-proven GaN HEMT large-signal models, a new 6 port, so-called “intrinsic”, transistor model is introduced. The second part of this workshop will concentrate on the design of power amplifiers employing GaN HEMTs to maximize power added efficiencies by the investigation of optimum source and load-pull at both fundamental and harmonic frequencies.
On Select Modeling Approaches for GaN-based High Electron Mobility Transistors
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Time: 10:35 AM - 12:00 PM
GaN-based devices have been considered as the enabling technology for next generation high-frequency/high-power and high-speed/high-voltage applications because of superior material properties with respect to silicon and ecological friendliness compared with GaAs devices. This paper analyzes and compares several select modeling approaches for GaN-based HEMTs, including various forms of equivalent circuit based modeling methodologies and modeling methodologies that have been widely adopted in silicon CMOS technologies, such as such as Vt-based or surface potential based. It will also provide an overview of the ongoing effort by the Compact Model Coalition (CMC) to produce an industry standard model for GaN-based HEMTs that is valid both for high-frequency/high-power applications and high-speed/high-voltage applications.
A High Power, Multiband Doherty Power Amplifier for Wireless Infrastructure Transmitter Applications – Freescale Semiconductor Workshop
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Time: 10:35 AM - 12:00 PM
For the first time a high power, multiband Doherty power amplifier for wireless infrastructure transmitter applications is presented. The amplifier has been designed specifically for simultaneous operation in TD-SCDMA bands F and A, and is capable of transmitting a 145 MHz wide signal located between 1880 MHz and 2025 MHz. It is capable of peak output power of above 170 Watt and operates at 42% efficiency when backed off by 8 dB. Both main and peaking transistors composing the Doherty amplifier are housed in a single package, which is outfitted with internal envelop terminations and a novel dual section input match, which facilitate the necessary video bandwidth and RF bandwidth, respectively.
GaN-on-Diamond: The Next GaN
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Time: 10:35 AM - 12:00 AM
Designed for manufacturers of transistor-based circuits with very high power, temperature and frequency, the GaN-on-diamond wafers enable extremely rapid, efficient and cost-effective heat extraction. This process reduces the operating temperatures of packaged chips, addressing heat issues that account for more than 50 percent of all electronic failures and enabling device manufacturers to produce smaller, faster and higher power electronic devices as well. Compared to GaN-on-SiC devices, GaN-on-diamond devices have 40% lower thermal resistance and can have 3 times the power density. This paper will present considerations for thermal management of high-power RF semiconductor devices, particularly design and performance issues as well as an overview of system-level benefits in implementation using GaN-on-diamond substrates.
100nm GaN/Si technology for mmW applications ERA/OMMIC Workshop
Date: Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Time: 2:15 PM - 3:00 PM
OMMIC President Marc Rocchi presents his company’s long term III/V HEMT process roadmap which is based on two key features : scaling of the transistor gate length and using higher banggap material to increase at the same time the power gain cut-off frequecny and the gate to drain breakdown voltage . In addition to the technical performance of these processes , the cost of processing should also be kept as low as possible. In this workshop OMMIC discusses details of its new 100nm GaN/Si MMIC HEMT process.
GaN HEMT Transistor for the Amplifier in an LTE Base Station
Date: Thursday, April 10, 2014
Time: 1:30 PM - 2:15 PM
In this presentation, a new comer in GaN HEMT industry, Dynax Semiconductor Inc. and its products are introduced. Dynax Semiconductor set up the very first commercial production line for microwave application specified GaN HEMT, producing die and devices operating at 48 V. Product mentioned in this article is a die with 150 watt linear output and matched to allow it working ranging from 2.5~2.7 GHz. Test results indicate its outstanding linearity and efficiency, making it an ideal choices for Doherty Amplifier with amazing performance.